Brian Calle: Decade also saw lapses in liberty

Dec. 27, 2009

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, right, addressing the media outside the Ronald Reagan Federal building. His wife Deborah, left, rushed across the courtroom and kissed him after the verdict was read. He was acquitted of conspiracy, but found guilty on a second count of witness tampering. //ADDITIONAL INFO: Illustration by Mona Shafer Edwards. Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, right, sobs when the jury acquitted him of all but one count in his federal corruption trial Friday. carona.0117.cy - 011609 CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER - CQ's

It's hard to believe the 2000s are coming to a close. Orange County, on the whole, experienced a great deal of prosperity and had the national spotlight on it a number of times – and not always in a very flattering way. We had one of the most embarrassing fiascos in the county's history with the prosecution of former sheriff Mike Carona, once on the national stage as "America's Sheriff"; exorbitant public employee pensions pushing cities to the verge of bankruptcy; and the ongoing debacle over Irvine's Great Park.

Mike Carona's imbroglio was, by far, the most troubling of local issues over the past decade. On Carona's watch, corruption in OC jails resulted in the 2006 death of an inmate, John Derek Chamberlain; the jails were investigated by the Office of Independent Review for wrongdoing; and Carona himself was charged with several counts of corruption. He was convicted on one count and sentenced to 66 months in prison.

The mismanagement and corrupt behavior of the former sheriff led to the county Board of Supervisors, in a split vote, to appoint the county's first female sheriff, Sandra Hutchens. Hutchens, an Orange County resident, was a retired Los Angeles deputy sheriff with the added benefit of entering the fray with little, if any, political baggage. Sheriff Hutchens has made some strides cleaning up the mess left by her predecessor, but she has made at least one worrisome misstep with the controversial repealing of select concealed weapons permits, indicating to some that she is not particularly a proponent of the Second Amendment.

Also hiding behind the "Orange Curtain" in the 2000s was the abundance of public employee pension benefits and attempted benefit expansions. In 2001, sheriff's deputies received a retroactive pension increase. In 2004 various county workers also received a retroactive hike in their pensions.

County pension liabilities, as estimated by a recent Register investigation, are at about $3.1 billion beyond the funding for them, up from $85 million in 1999, and still loom over the county. One glimmer of hope, though, was last year's successful ballot measure, Measure J, requiring a countywide vote to increase pension benefits for county employees, including sheriff's deputies. That alone, though, will not be enough to keep cities and the county solvent.

Sure to spill over into the next decade is ongoing controversy surrounding the city of Irvine's pet project, the Orange County Great Park. In 2000, the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station looked like it would become a commercial airport, given 1994's Measure A authorizing an airport (and Measure F and its reversal in court). But, in May 2001, Irvine unveiled a plan to overturn Measure A, replacing it with the "Orange County Great Park." County voters passed Measure W in March 2002, paving the way for the park.

The city of Irvine wasn't done. Council members led by Larry Agran successfully took steps to annex the land. Things just got more complicated and troubling. First, a key park board member quit in protest. Then the Orange County grand jury in June 2006 released a report, "The Orange County Great Park: Whose Park is It?" The report suggested the county should sue Irvine because the city betrayed the public trust by seizing complete control of the park. Moreover, contractors who appeared to be close allies of the City Council received big no-bid contracts for work on the park, including a public-relations firm, Forde & Mollrich, which to date has received about $3.5 million and looks to get another $100,000 a month going forward on the project. Most recently, the City Council awarded a $1.6 million no-bid contract to Gafcon Inc. for construction management services,as reported by the Register.

It has been a troubling decade for local liberty in Orange County, and the consequences will carry over into the new year and the next decade. But residents of the county are starting to ask some serious questions and peek under the tent. The 2010s might be the decade for local reform and penance.

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